In today`s world you will find it hard to come across examples of living fossils. Living fossil is a term used by scientists which means living animals and plants that are largely unaltered from the fossilised remains of their predecessors. A few examples that are still in evidence are those of the alligator and crocodile that have been around allegedly for over 200 million years. There is however something that surpasses the crocodile and alligator, and that comes in the form of a species of tree called the Ginko Biloba, which is said to have been around for 270 million years. If that`s not amazing itself, it may not have existed for 1000`s of years if it wasn`t for human intervention.



The Ginko Biloba was thought by scientists in Europe to be extinct, and like the rest of the Ginko family was only known from fossil records. All this changed when German scientist and explorer Engelbert Kaempfer travelled to Japan in 1691. In Kaempfers travels across Japan he often stayed in the houses of nobles and a number of Buddhist monasteries. frequently seen in the gardens of these buildings were Ginko Biloba trees, which were highly valued for their culinary and medical properties. When he returned to Europe in 1693 Kaempfer gave some Ginko Biloba seeds to the botanical gardens in Utrecht. The Ginko Biloba trees in Utrecht have been used to spawn collections of Ginko trees in botanical gardens all over Europe and the US.

One key factor that the Ginko Biloba tree has, that has undoubtedly helped it through time is that it has a high resistance to diseases, and because of that it is belived that some trees have lived for over 2,500 years. The Ginko Biloba is not known in most parts of the world and more-so in the wild. Nevertheless it has recently been found growing in the wild in Zhejiang, a province in China, but it is now believed that they were planted there due to limited diversity in the Zhejiang population.

The Ginko Biloba is a tough tree and you can`t really imagine how a tree so strong has to rely on human intervention to make it successful. Even more-so if you consider that there are four Ginko Biloba trees in Hiroshima that survived the atom bomb blast despite being only 2 kilometres from the blast area.

The Ginko Biloba which is so reliant on human cultivation, has survived largely due to its use in traditional Chinese medicine and it seems to have a safe future due to increasing claims that it assists with conditions of the central nervous system. Research is currently being undertaken to asses its fitness for use by Alzheimer`s sufferers.